The Puppy Blueprint

Atticus x Fannie

 Disclaimer: While our future goal is for these puppy blueprints to be as accurate as possible, this first generation is going to be an educational process. This is a compilation of what outcomes we expect given the data we have obtained over the last 2+ years on both families. There are things we simply do not know about that could pop-up. While we hope for these to be accurate, we expect them to only be PARTIALLY correct.

 In order for future puppy blueprints to improve, we need owners willing to contribute consistent feedback on their puppy well into adulthood. Hip, health, and C-BARQ data should be collected to continue to build toward our goals of the project.

We hope those who bring an Atticus x Fannie puppy into their life will be excited about this journey and how they can help conserve friendly to neutral English Shepherds who make exceptional Shadow Shepherds!  

‘Easy’ Traits Expected Consistently Across Entire Litter

  • Very reliable Off-switch

  • Friendly to neutral toward strange humans

  • Low Defense Drive

Expected Inconsistent Traits:

  • Toy Drive

  • Food Drive

  • Dog Aggression

  • Same Sex Aggression

  •  FOMO (Fear of missing out) or a resentment around confinement

‘Difficult’ Traits to Be Proactive About

  • Neutral Feelings Towards Strange or Familiar Dogs

  • FOMO and crate training

  • Wildlife / Cat Chasing

Working Traits 

Atticus: Successful at keeping predatory birds away from poultry on owners previous farm. Atticus’ sire and dam are not on working farms. He has one full sister who is reported to do well moving cows. Atticus’ family has demonstrated excellent vermin hunting skills. His sire demonstrates exceptional nurturing skills with other animals.

Fannie: Unknown. Fannie’s sire was reported as low drive around moving dairy cows while her dam was reported as higher, being able to hold and move them in and out of the milking parlor. Sire Shep was a ‘Farm Host’ to guests visiting the farm. He also did perimeter checks, alerting when something was off.

 Health Concerns to be Proactive About

  • Hearing

  • Hips

  • EPI

 Coat Types & Colors

  • Curly or Straight

  • Tri or Black & Tan

  • Males can expect more profuse coats with age

  • Any puppy who is fixed will end up with more shedding of the undercoat and require more grooming